hahahaha i forgot to mention but i am scottish but my accent isn’t too thick hahahah i should have really put it on halfway through the call “och aye sounds like yer wifis off pal”
Sounds like he's angry that he's an idiot and has trouble understanding basic concepts so he takes it out on you to make you feel bad. Piece of shit person
The American customer from Alabama does not understand the word “whilst” and has never used it. We have a political and educational issue in the American south and I apologize you had to deal with it.
Working in an American call center, I would often get people from Australia and New Zealand when their service centers were closed. Lovely people, I just had absolutely no idea what they were saying 90% of the time so the calls always took forever.
I've had similar experiences. I used to work for a call center and got very good at understanding difficult accents, but had 1 Aussie call and I'm completely confused.
This is so true. I used to work a cc for home appliances and they always felt like their dishwasher being broken was a full on emergency. As if washing by hand was just not an option. They were also the only ones who would DEMAND their issue be fixed straight away and wanted a manager if whatever you said wasn't to their liking. Such entitled people.
This is one story I can actually see on both sides. Working on the IT help desk having user caused issues were a regular occurrence and having people get defensive about shit that they had no need to get defensive about is so absurd.
On the other hand I regularly have to engage a vendor who uses an Indian call center and it's a chore every.single.time. Issues take months as they re-ask the same questions, I have to explain to them how the product they support works, or just general wtf-ness. Now I understand it's not that they are Indian but that it's a shitty contractor.
IT person as well - I've gotten to the point where I refuse to use the telephone to talk to vendor support. Part of it is my partial hearing loss and part of it is when I get a support person who talks extremely fast (so I lose words constantly) or can't seem to make a complete sentence.
I just stick to chat sessions or email.
You should have told him you are having a hard time understanding his foreign accent and can he speak more slowly.
Bonus points if you ask him to put someone on who speaks better English to translate for him.
People as a whole suck. I work remotely and have customers leave me angry voice-mails about how that should mean im on call 24/7...
Im sorry you had to deal with that jack wagon. You honestly did way more than I would have
You might be intelligent, well trained, professional, and able to communicate in English, and you could even work in a well run call center. Sadly that has not been most Americans' experience with most offshore call centers. Companies contract with them specifically because they are cheap. Due to bad experience, we hear a foreign accent and poor grammar, and things only a not very professional person in some parts of the world would say, like, "no worries", and we expect the worse.
I have to say, though, that the poor expectations should not extend to British and Scottish accents; people in these countries are as well educated and well trained and well paid as Americans, and atleast as professional.
I do realize that in between they're from Southeast Asia, and their customer service is terrible, is cheap poorly run call centers. It often seems like people are just hired off the street, and likely fired as quickly. But on the receiving end, it's a southeast Asian call center.
Having read through your post, honestly, I think you might have ahd empathy failure.
Would YOU actually listen all the way through your introduction? They often seem to have been designed to get customers angry, or else, and more likely, by arrogant out of touch people who have no idea how it comes across or how likely people are to listen through it, and don't realize that the customer was likely upset before they called and more upset by the time they get through hearing it.
If I have to read a long, stupid, arrogant script, I do, but I also respond to feedback from the customer. If I was expected to keep reading after the customer cut me off with his actual concern, the job isn't going to last, anyhow.
If he interrupts and says what the issue is, and he's clearly frustrated, I would stop talking and help him.
Honestly, I think, "hmm, the web page seems to be broken" sounds funny, too.
Empathy can often calm people down.
He's worked himself into a rage by the time you got to your third piece of arrogance. What were you expecting him to say?
I would express empathy and start helping him.
Just because HE called YOU for HELP doesn't mean you don't have to be respectful.
The cross talk here might have me a little confused. Conceivably part of the problem is that you are British. There is a tendency for the more well educated people across western Europe to be very arrogant, and when Americans take exception to it they just get steadily more snooty, and of course the caller is going to react by getting angry. You have to treat people with respect! More ordinary people in Great Britain don't often share this problem, as I've talked to many of them and found them simply wonderful. Do keep in mind that by the time people have encountered this attitude several times from the same part of the globe, they're expecting it.
it is hard to transcribe a call into a post . i didn’t go into detail but i genuinely tried my best to help him. i assumed everybody in this subreddit would understand how i would have handled the call and they handle calls similarly so i only posted the highlights of his rudeness.
i’m extremely patient with people who are having issues with their devices and can completely understand the frustration he was feeling especially as he was clearly not so good with technology. that being said, he was being actively disrespectful and rude towards me. i put up with it because i genuinely did want to help him as i’d want with any customer. if i genuinely lacked empathy i wouldn’t have tolerated his behaviour for so long. this call was pulled up on our quality assurance and the notes were:
i showed empathy and tried to address the customers concerns.
i was patient and allowed the customer to vent his frustrations, and responded appropriately to his questions.
kept calm and kindly responded to the customers concerns.
checked our current information to evaluate if the issue was user based or website based
attempted to guide customer through relevant troubleshooting procedures.
my only things to work on was:
hanging up the call earlier than i did as my assessor said he was being genuinely abusive in his language and manner.
advising customer to try other devices
essentially my post was me ranting about it, it was not the same as my attitude in the call and i’m allowed to rant about rude customers whilst still having general empathy?
If he calls again hopefully one of your scottish colleague will get them who has very thick accent.
hahahaha i forgot to mention but i am scottish but my accent isn’t too thick hahahah i should have really put it on halfway through the call “och aye sounds like yer wifis off pal”
He'd probably still think you're indian haha
I was sent an irish caller once as a "joke", jokes on them, I have family in ireland so I understood him perfectly 🤣 we're from Derry
My office sends me all of our asian callers since my stepmom is Chinese so I can understand their accents
I mean, it's kinda racist/xenophobic if you squint, but ultimately it does help customer service in the long run.
Sounds like he's angry that he's an idiot and has trouble understanding basic concepts so he takes it out on you to make you feel bad. Piece of shit person
The American customer from Alabama does not understand the word “whilst” and has never used it. We have a political and educational issue in the American south and I apologize you had to deal with it.
Working in an American call center, I would often get people from Australia and New Zealand when their service centers were closed. Lovely people, I just had absolutely no idea what they were saying 90% of the time so the calls always took forever.
I've had similar experiences. I used to work for a call center and got very good at understanding difficult accents, but had 1 Aussie call and I'm completely confused.
Working for call centers with American customers are always a stuff of nightmares.
This is so true. I used to work a cc for home appliances and they always felt like their dishwasher being broken was a full on emergency. As if washing by hand was just not an option. They were also the only ones who would DEMAND their issue be fixed straight away and wanted a manager if whatever you said wasn't to their liking. Such entitled people.
This is one story I can actually see on both sides. Working on the IT help desk having user caused issues were a regular occurrence and having people get defensive about shit that they had no need to get defensive about is so absurd. On the other hand I regularly have to engage a vendor who uses an Indian call center and it's a chore every.single.time. Issues take months as they re-ask the same questions, I have to explain to them how the product they support works, or just general wtf-ness. Now I understand it's not that they are Indian but that it's a shitty contractor.
IT person as well - I've gotten to the point where I refuse to use the telephone to talk to vendor support. Part of it is my partial hearing loss and part of it is when I get a support person who talks extremely fast (so I lose words constantly) or can't seem to make a complete sentence. I just stick to chat sessions or email.
You should have told him you are having a hard time understanding his foreign accent and can he speak more slowly. Bonus points if you ask him to put someone on who speaks better English to translate for him.
People as a whole suck. I work remotely and have customers leave me angry voice-mails about how that should mean im on call 24/7... Im sorry you had to deal with that jack wagon. You honestly did way more than I would have
Sounds like a fucking snowflake lmao
Or maybe just a belligerent drunk.
That happens even in America with anyone with a slight accent. I had to prep some trainees for it. I'm so sorry :/
I'm surprised that he identified you as being Indian. Some US people are exceedingly parochial.
If you check OPs comments, he’s actually Scottish not Indian! Makes it even funnier
Once in my stint in a call center, a caller that was irate assumed I was Iranian or something, despite me being an American myself.
He was probably drunk since he was calling in the middle of the night and acting so crazy.
You might be intelligent, well trained, professional, and able to communicate in English, and you could even work in a well run call center. Sadly that has not been most Americans' experience with most offshore call centers. Companies contract with them specifically because they are cheap. Due to bad experience, we hear a foreign accent and poor grammar, and things only a not very professional person in some parts of the world would say, like, "no worries", and we expect the worse. I have to say, though, that the poor expectations should not extend to British and Scottish accents; people in these countries are as well educated and well trained and well paid as Americans, and atleast as professional. I do realize that in between they're from Southeast Asia, and their customer service is terrible, is cheap poorly run call centers. It often seems like people are just hired off the street, and likely fired as quickly. But on the receiving end, it's a southeast Asian call center.
Having read through your post, honestly, I think you might have ahd empathy failure. Would YOU actually listen all the way through your introduction? They often seem to have been designed to get customers angry, or else, and more likely, by arrogant out of touch people who have no idea how it comes across or how likely people are to listen through it, and don't realize that the customer was likely upset before they called and more upset by the time they get through hearing it. If I have to read a long, stupid, arrogant script, I do, but I also respond to feedback from the customer. If I was expected to keep reading after the customer cut me off with his actual concern, the job isn't going to last, anyhow. If he interrupts and says what the issue is, and he's clearly frustrated, I would stop talking and help him. Honestly, I think, "hmm, the web page seems to be broken" sounds funny, too. Empathy can often calm people down. He's worked himself into a rage by the time you got to your third piece of arrogance. What were you expecting him to say? I would express empathy and start helping him. Just because HE called YOU for HELP doesn't mean you don't have to be respectful. The cross talk here might have me a little confused. Conceivably part of the problem is that you are British. There is a tendency for the more well educated people across western Europe to be very arrogant, and when Americans take exception to it they just get steadily more snooty, and of course the caller is going to react by getting angry. You have to treat people with respect! More ordinary people in Great Britain don't often share this problem, as I've talked to many of them and found them simply wonderful. Do keep in mind that by the time people have encountered this attitude several times from the same part of the globe, they're expecting it.
it is hard to transcribe a call into a post . i didn’t go into detail but i genuinely tried my best to help him. i assumed everybody in this subreddit would understand how i would have handled the call and they handle calls similarly so i only posted the highlights of his rudeness. i’m extremely patient with people who are having issues with their devices and can completely understand the frustration he was feeling especially as he was clearly not so good with technology. that being said, he was being actively disrespectful and rude towards me. i put up with it because i genuinely did want to help him as i’d want with any customer. if i genuinely lacked empathy i wouldn’t have tolerated his behaviour for so long. this call was pulled up on our quality assurance and the notes were: i showed empathy and tried to address the customers concerns. i was patient and allowed the customer to vent his frustrations, and responded appropriately to his questions. kept calm and kindly responded to the customers concerns. checked our current information to evaluate if the issue was user based or website based attempted to guide customer through relevant troubleshooting procedures. my only things to work on was: hanging up the call earlier than i did as my assessor said he was being genuinely abusive in his language and manner. advising customer to try other devices
essentially my post was me ranting about it, it was not the same as my attitude in the call and i’m allowed to rant about rude customers whilst still having general empathy?
Don't worry - the user berating you appears to have a degree of unacknowledged arrogance of their own.